I think what you said about natural disasters is probably right–people could lose their homes or if their situation is precarious, a natural disaster could kind of put them over the edge. And for economics, I think that could happen in a couple of ways. One way is that if the climate changes, it might mess up the ways we grow food.

People here can afford it, but the homeless, or in poor countries like in Central America, Mexico, climate change consequences–fight for resources always is a [didn’t catch the word] in the conflict of the world. When they colonized America, that was for resources. Why people go to emigrate? I always believe that human society is always on the move in order to survive. [When people talk about climate change] they never comprehend immigration. I feel terrible how the world’s being destroyed by pollution. You know the Marianas in the Pacific? They found some garbage in the depths.

*

[These two came up together and looked like they might be related]

Person 1: I ain’t anxious about that fake shit.

You think it’s fake?

I don’t believe that it’s real, ’cause people are willing to lie in order to get funding, but if it’s real there’s nothin’ I can do about it. I don’t waste stuff. You can be one of those people who go around and tell people what to do, but they’re not gonna listen, otherwise the Greens would be winning and they’re not.

Why not?

[People] know they’re gonna go the rest of their life with fresh air and trees.

Person 2: They don’t care because they feel as though it’s not gonna affect them.

Person 1: We know we’re gonna have water for the rest of our lives–we can touch it, we can feel it.

*

Person 1: Life. I’m homeless.

Person 2: If we lost the Arctic that’s bad enough. Antarctica would put 200 more feet of sea level.*

Person 1: The majority of U.S. cities are on the coast.**

Person 2: Even a minor change could put us over the edge … I did 26 years with the government in Miami, and central Florida spent $500 million on water ports, hardening wharfs and jetties, uninterruptible power supplies… They could never say “global warming” but they could look the other way when the money’s been spent.

*Doctor’s note: I haven’t fact-checked this.

**Doctor’s note: Pretty sure this is a mistake.

*

[These two were a couple.]

Person 1: Our daughter just graduated from Brown, and she’s about to be out on her own.

Person 2: She makes good decisions and makes good friends. But she’ll be living in New York, it’s a big city.

Person 1: We’re in Houston, so we can’t swoop in and see her.

*

Money. I need more of it, always. There’s never enough. Climate change too–I do snow, and this winter there wasn’t much snow, so I didn’t make much money. It all comes back to money.

*

Am I anxious? Not really, not very. I guess it’s a little bit concerning. I think there’s a good possibility that it is to do with global warming, whether manmade or not. Many many years of history show fluctuations in temperature, it’s not something that’s brand new. There’s a good possibility that some of it is cars having an impact on it. The ozone layer’s depleted from all the carbon monoxide from all the cars. And then there’s industry, like especially power plants that pollute, especially in China–I’ve seen a lot of issues with pollution in China, I read that at the Olympics they had so much pollution that they had to order their factories to stop working. I don’t really think about it too often, but it’s really affecting people there.